North Ayrshire Council will demolish Douglas Park shelter after the matter was called in by two local councillors who wanted to see a two month delay over the matter to re-assess the original decision.
A petition of residents in the Bankhouse Avenue area was also heard at the audit and scrutiny panel held in North Ayrshire Council chambers last week were accounts were given by residents about the last fire at the shelter, and even blood splattered in one resident’s garden from rowdy teenagers. They want to see the historic shelter building demolished.
However, the matter over whether to demolish the building or not also resulted in disagreement between local councillors at the scrutiny meeting as local councillors Ian Murdoch and Alan Hill called in the cabinet decision to demolish the shelter, hoping for a two month delay to re-examine the situation, but Cllrs. Tom Marshall and Alex Gallagher backed the decision to bulldoze the building. 

The original decision to demolish the building was rubberstamped, and demolition was due to start on Tuesday, lasting for a period of four days.

However, the demolition works has been delayed until Monday due to the council contractors having been held up on a previous project. 


Resident Ian Ord: “These are not necessarily bad kids but they are taking substances which are not healthy, sometimes making them high. There can be physical and verbal abuse. You can have 60-100 kids here in this park, and kids then come and play in that debris. It is irresponsible of all of us to let that happen. Why would you repair something just for it to be vandalised again and again. I have lived in the street for 35 years, and there has been problems over all those years, but it has got worse. There is no easy answer, but these youths are wanting an undercover facility so they can do what they want to do. Removing the shelter is the only solution.”
Tom Black said: “The noise that is generated travels and the volume increases as the evening/early morning goes on. Kids gets additional excitement climbing up trees and entering gardens. My neighbour phoned the police, and there must have been some kind of accident as there was blood over various areas. Over the past wee while, it has been gradually increasing in terms of noise and damage, and the number of people taking part has also increased.”
Mrs Baxter said: “My daughter discovered the last fire in the park at 5am and contacted the emergency services. There were clouds of black smoke and small bits of paper drifting towards the house, it really was quite scary. Neighbours have had bins stolen and taken into the park and set on fire.”
Andrew Fraser of NAC Legal said: “The Fairlie Growers position has been fairly consistent that they do not want to take on the shelter as part of the asset transfer. Ward members, Police Scotland, and Fairlie Growers were consulted, and there was a community drop-in event. The cost of the demolition is £11,000. Three of the four Largs councillors backed the demolition on 14 July, and the community council were also consulted. North Ayrshire Council was under no obligation to consult regarding this demolition, and it is a decision for the cabinet to take but we thought it best practice to consult with Largs Community Council and Fairlie Growers.”